We live in scary times. The rise of the Religious Right has created a co-mingling of religion and government that has been steadily increasing since the 1970s.

Some of the politicians that have risen from this movement want to insert their particular brand of religion into secular laws—at both the state and federal level. While mixing religion and politics is almost always unconstitutional, it has gotten to a point where it’s spiraling completely out of control.

We have seen a slew of laws being introduced across the country that affect everything from contraception and women’s health care access, to religious exemptions in bullying laws, to laws that discriminate in adoptions. These pieces of legislation attempt to insert religion into our secular laws. We see a mobilized Religious Right opposing all sorts of science-based ideas and research on things such as stem cell research, and dragging down the American public education system by attempting to teach intelligent design in public schools rather than the scientific theory of evolution, insisting on abstinence only sex education, and discouraging funding for schools that don’t comply with their religious agenda.

For example, earlier this year former U.S. Senator and Republican presidential candidate, Rick Santorum, criticized college because he said college students lose their "faith commitment."  He also wanted to decrease taxpayer support for public schooling in favor of homeschooling—which some groups of conservative Christians believe is best because their children won’t be introduced to science-based ideas that conflict with their religious beliefs.
 
Some say the Republican Party has been hijacked by the Religious Right. And it’s easy to see why this sentiment prevails—especially within the secular movement. After all, the Religious Right seems to be closely affiliated with the Republicans, and many secularists wonder why we should “waste time” trying to include, persuade or reason with a party that seems to have aligned itself against the very thing we aim to protect and strengthen: the separation of religion and government.
 
However, that is the very reason we must reach across the aisle. While the Religious Right may represent a faithful voting bloc—and therefore hold a disproportionate amount of power within the party—they do not represent all who identify as Republican.

In 2000, about 14 percent of the electorate identified itself as part of the "Christian Right," with 79 percent of this sector voting for George W. Bush. A new analysis shows that the share of voters identifying with or leaning toward the GOP has either grown or held steady in every major religious group. But the GOP is not comprised of only conservative Christians. Another recent study found that 34 percent of Republicans (and 51 percent of the general public) agree that religious conservatives have too much control over the GOP. And a full 44 percent of Republicans believe the Church should keep out of politics.

While individual nontheists may identify as liberals, conservatives, libertarians, independents, among others, the nontheist movement as a whole is associated with the Left in the minds of many.  As a result, we haven’t been able to reach quite a few on the conservative side who are either nontheists, or who may be receptive to the secular agenda. And there are quite a few. Nearly 30 percent of “nones”—people who do not identify with any religious affiliation—identify as Republican. 

Between the Republican “nones” and the 34 percent of Republicans that don’t like where the Religious Right is taking their party-- that’s a lot of people we’re missing if we work with only the other side. Not to mention that legislators tend to be a bit more motivated to introduce satisfactory legislation and fight harder for your vote when there is legitimate competition for it—rather than paying empty lip service to a voting bloc they know is not going anywhere. One needs look no further than President Obama backing off his promise to end discrimination in the hiring of government-funded positions by religious organizations, or his hosting of in the annual Prayer Breakfast, to see that politicians on both sides are angling for religious votes.

The reality is, no matter where you fall on immigration, taxes, foreign affairs, crime—it does not affect the principles of secularism and the constitutional value of separating religion from government. Secular values should be shared by all, regardless of where you fall on everything else.

We do ourselves a disservice when we actively attempt to align ourselves with only one party. Of course, we may naturally gravitate toward one side or the other, but we must remember that most people are not single issue voters.  That is to say that when they go into the voting booth, they are not voting solely on their beliefs on religion (or any one issue). They may be put off by the religious rhetoric of a particular candidate, but are more concerned about immigration policy, for instance, and vote for a religiously-affiliated candidate anyway.

It’s our job as a movement to make voters see the importance of voting based on secular issues. We should never give up on creating relationships and building coalitions where ever we can.

As a movement, and in the case of the Secular Coalition, an advocacy and lobbying organization, it must be our goal to make secular viewpoints transcend party lines—a concept especially important when we remember that the political tide is always only one election away from possibly turning in the other direction.  What a shame it would be to lose 2, 4, 6, 8 years—or more, because we are waiting for “our side” to be elected or reelected, before we were able to join the conversation or enact legislation of our own. And even then, is it guaranteed?

Having relationships on both sides of the aisle ensures that no matter who is elected, we will have a seat at the table. And if we have a place in both parties, we can even help temper the influence of those with more radical and religiously extreme views—pulling the party back toward the center.

We often say that secular values are American values because they represent the principles our country was founded upon and the vision our founders had for this nation. And that’s the truth. These values belong to all of and should never belong to any one party.
 
If we want to succeed as a movement, we cannot focus on partisanship, but instead, on pragmatism. If we want our message and values to be widespread and universally socially accepted and valued, we can't focus our message on only certain groups. When we have relationships with both sides, we will begin to have real and lasting power to effect change in legislation. 

When we can successfully do that, we will not only be able to combat the horribly egregious issues we are seeing pop up from state to state around the country, but we will also have helped protect the very values our forefathers intended for us when they founded this great nation.

Last week the Secular Coalition held Lobby Day for Reason—an event that drew 200 nontheistic Americans to Capitol Hill to lobby their representatives on behalf of secular values.

More than 125 meetings were held with Senate and House staffs on both sides of the isle—in fact, the number of scheduled meetings was split almost down the middle between the offices of Democrats and Republicans. After all, secular values are non-partisan—they are uniquely American values.

Participants lobbied their representatives to raise awareness of the secular community, to ask for inclusion by lawmakers, and on religious discrimination in health care law.

As atheists, agnostics, and freethinkers from across the spectrum, it’s important for us to make ourselves known. The prevalence of the Religious Right in politics today demands that we make our voices heard and protect the separation of church and state—which is the best guarantee of freedom of religion for all, including, ironically, those who seek break down that wall.

Lobby Day participants learned the skills they needed to lobby their federal representatives that day, but also took home valuable skills to lobby their local representatives—a task equally as important.

Many of the attacks we see on secular values are happening at the state and local levels. Today 38 percent of current members of Congress served first in local or state offices. Often the federal leaders of tomorrow are most accessible today in state and local positions.

Religion is seeping into every facet of our government from the state level on up and that wall of separation between government and religion that we so treasure is under constant attack.

Lobby Day was an opportunity to show our elected officials that they have nontheistic constituents, and to cement ourselves in their minds as a voting bloc – as well as an opportunity to raise important issues to the very people responsible for setting the legislative agenda for our country.

It was an amazing start—but it’s just the beginning. As secular Americans we need to keep making ourselves known, keep voting, keep raising issues and keep fighting to protect the separation of government and religion.

You can read some of the press coverage we received on Lobby Day and for our participation in the Reason Rally, here.

The Virginia state legislature is ruffling a lot of feathers recently—and heavily blurring the line between religion and government.

First, it passed a bill that would bar same-sex couples from adopting children—specifically it would allow state-funded faith-based agencies to turn away potential adoptive parents based on the adoptive parents’ sexual orientation or the agencies’ written religious policies.

Then, Republican lawmakers passed a “personhood” bill that would define life as beginning at conception—a move that could outlaw contraceptives and a definition for which there is no scientific consensus.

On the same day, another bill was passed that would require all women seeking abortions in the state of Virginia to have a transvaginal ultrasound before the procedure. The procedure is extremely invasive and usually medically unnecessary. Besides requiring an uncomfortable, unnecessary, and unwanted medical procedure, the bill’s goal seems to be to shame women into making a different decision that the state deems more morally acceptable.

These efforts in Virginia are lightly veiled—and sometimes blatant—insertions of theology into the state’s secular law. The Secular Coalition has been fighting against the efforts in Virginia and similar legislative efforts elsewhere.

Earlier this month the Secular Coalition urged our supporters in Virginia to reach out to their state representatives in opposition to the law that would add the religious refusal clause to Virginia’s child placement laws. Despite all efforts, the bill passed.

In November, we urged our supporters to vote against a Mississippi “personhood” ballot initiative very similar to the bill proposed in Virginia. The people of Mississippi overwhelmingly voted it down. Similar initiatives were voted down twice in Colorado.

What’s going on in Virginia represents just a few incidents in what has become an onslaught of religiously tinged legislation being rammed through state legislatures. Last week Oklahoma approved “personhood” legislation of its own, and the required ultrasound-before-abortion laws—much like the one in place in Texas—seem to be cropping up all over. Seven states now require abortion providers to perform ultrasounds on women seeking an abortion.

It’s a disturbing trend. Overzealous legislators pushing a top-down agenda that is both religious and imposing in nature—stripping citizens of their individual liberties, as well as the right to define their own personal moral, religious, and health beliefs and choices. 

Even more alarming is that after many of these efforts—such as the “personhood” initiatives—have been repeatedly turned down by even the most conservative voters, they are now being forced on the constituents by legislators. A recently released poll showed that 55 percent of Virginians are against the transvaginal ultrasound measure and only 36 percent support it.

It’s the lawmakers’ jobs to represent the voters, not to impose their particular brand of morality on the citizens. Instead, they are coming off like patronizing parents setting down rules for their children, rather than a body of public servants elected to represent the will of the people.

After receiving a lot of pressure—including 1,000 people lined up on the steps of the state Capitol in silent protest—Virginia lawmakers backed off slightly – the transvaginal ultrasound bill has been amended; it will still require an ultrasound, but not a transvaginal one. However, this doesn’t solve the larger problem the bill represents or the other troublesome pieces of legislation the Virginia statehouse has put forth. And as we’re seeing, it won’t solve the similar issues popping up around the country.

Legislators need to recognize that their personal beliefs are just that—personal. If they truly care about the positions they were elected to fulfill, they’d show a greater respect for the state Constitutions and the U.S. Constitution, respectively, they took an oath—or affirmed—to uphold.

Jessica Ahlquist—the Rhode Island teenager who successfully fought her school for its unconstitutional prayer display—has come under attack from multiple directions: fellow classmates, community members, and even a State Rep., Peter G. Palumbo, who referred to her publicly as an “evil little thing.”

She has been bashed on social media outlets, where she has been physically threatened, called all sorts of derogatory names, and was told “Satan will rape you in hell.” Even local florists refused to deliver flowers to her.

Ahlquist was treated this way simply for fighting against what the presiding Judge Ronald R. Lagueux called an unconstitutional intermingling of church and state, “No amount of history and tradition can cure a constitutional infraction. [The] Plaintiff … took a brave stand, particularly in light of the hostile response she has received from her community.”

If there was ever a case of bullying due to religious beliefs, this is it. It is situations like Ahlquist’s—and unfortunately so many more—that make comprehensive bullying legislation so important.

A few months back, Michigan legislators proposed state Bill 137, which would have mandated that Michigan school districts create anti-bullying policies. However, the bill made an exception for those who act due to “sincerely held religious belief or moral conviction of a school employee, school volunteer, pupil, or a pupil’s parent or guardian.” If passed, the bill would have protected the bullies—not the victims—leaving atheists, gays, and other marginalized groups unprotected, as long as the bully claimed religious privilege.

While the Michigan bill has been abandoned, Tennessee is now taking up a similar bill, which would protect bullies who engage in anti-gay bullying if they do so for religious reasons. The bill was proposed one month after a local gay teen committed suicide after being bullied at school.

Bullying has always been a problem with school kids, but it is a growing epidemic with the advent of social media and other technology that make bullied children’s suffering that much more widespread and public. 

The National Center for Education Statistics cites four major specific targets of school bullying—including homophobia and bullying based on religious beliefs. According to the National Youth Violence Prevention Resource Center nearly 15 percent of middle-schoolers have been bullied or harassed because of their religion or race.

Bullying—and in particular bullying due to religion or lack thereof—has reached epidemic proportions among youth and has serious effects on children. For children in grades 6 – 10 nearly 3.2 million are victims of bullying each year, according to GroundSpark, an organization that creates films and dynamic educational campaigns aimed at inspiring community action. Those children who are bullied are five times more likely to be depressed and far more likely to be suicidal.

In public schools, students and staff have a right to a safe learning environment—regardless of others’ religions or backgrounds. Tennessee’s proposed law is counterproductive. It protects the bullies instead of the victims, and it introduces unconstitutional religious privileging into state law at the expense of some of the most vulnerable citizens—children.

The U.S. Congress is currently considering three anti-bullying measures. Two of them specifically identify perceived or actual religion as a reason students may be victims of bullying or harassment: the Tyler Clementi Higher Education Anti-Harassment Act of 2011 and the Safe Schools Improvement Act of 2011.

The Secular Coalition supports both of these bills, because they do not include religious exemptions that neuter the intent. Any bullying bill that doesn’t protect the Jessica Ahlquists of America, quite simply, misses the point.